St. Marks Refinery

Tallahassee City Attorney, Jim English, says time is up; it's been over a year since a dangerous chemical was discovered at the city's Purdom generating station. Tests proved a cancerous chemical called dioxin had migrated from the St. Marks refinery to the city's power plant next door.

“The source of that contamination needs to be cleaned up. We advised the company to take care of this, they have not,” says Jim English, Tallahassee City Attorney.

In 1998, the St. Marks refinery was taken over by American International Petroleum Corporation. The company's lawyer, Gary Early, says that time the group was unaware of the dioxin contamination. Early told WCTV the material on the property dates back decades, therefore they believe they have valid defenses to any legal action brought by the city of Tallahassee.

Meanwhile, 42 employees at the power plant are steering clear of the contaminated sight.

“Once we found out the tests concluded it was dioxin, we immediately stopped allowing workers to go out there,” says John Gentry, Purdom Environmental Engineer.

Gordon King, the plant manager, said, “I would love to see them come on site, remediate the area so we can resume our normal activities out there.

English says if the city commission agrees to take legal action at Wednesday night's meeting, a suit will be filed within 20 days.

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